Ephraim Hardcastle
AS I predicted on March 9, Prince Harry and his brideto-be Meghan Markle will have Commonwealth roles. However, while Kensington Palace courtiers mention Miss Markle in their announcement, Buckingham Palace officials name-check only Harry. Why so? ‘She’s not yet royal, not yet British and also not a citizen of a Commonwealth country,’ explains a source. Apropos Harry and Meghan’s May 19 wedding, the BBC has chosen newscaster Huw Edwards, 56, to present its coverage, not David Dimbleby, 80 in October. THE Queen is ‘vexed’ that the Syrian bombing row threatens to overshadow this week’s Commonwealth summit. It’s likely to be HM’s last such gathering, emphasising the ‘friendliness, energy and positivity’ of an organisation she has nurtured since taking it over from her father in 1952. The unavoidable political rumpus sullies a week which concludes with her 92nd birthday on Saturday. BASKING in the Syrian crisis, French President Emmanuel Macron, 40, did a two-and-three-quarter hour, live TV interview ‘and was pretty flawless’, says my Gallic source, adding: ‘An earlier interview was held in an empty, provincial school classroom. A Canal Plus wit said they had to remove all the schoolmistresses first – a reference to how delectably-preserved First Lady Brigitte Macron, 65 last week, was romanced and finally wed by Macron [who was her 15-year-old pupil when they met].’ SHOWBIZ veteran Amanda Barrie, 82, says her lover, the late rock legend Billy Fury, pictured in his prime, who died of a heart attack aged 42 in 1983, smoked marijuana constantly. ‘He just moved in with his dogs, a 2.2 air gun and his shoe-box of marijuana,’ she says in Halfway to Paradise: The Life of Billy Fury, by David and Caroline Stafford. ‘The doctor said to me, after examining Billy, “Did you know that he smokes marijuana?” I said quietly, “Yes, I do.” And he just said, “Well, it’s keeping him alive.” I was even more shocked when he said, “You must make sure he keeps on the marijuana.” He had the heart problem all along – a very frail heart. I suppose smoking stopped him from getting nervous or over-excited. Well, he started smoking first thing in the morning and he continued all day.’ JACOB Rees-Mogg MP sends out a copy of the 1968 editorial in The Times which his editor father, William, wrote approving of the sacking of Enoch Powell by then Tory leader Edward Heath. Powell’s ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech attacking migration here meant he had to go, wrote Mogg Senior. ‘It has stood the test of time,’ says Mogg Minor. Perhaps so, but if Theresa May decides finally to discipline pesky rebellious colleagues, might Jacob suffer the same fate? THE 18 MPs running in Sunday’s London Marathon comprise seven Tories, eight Labour and three Scottish Nationalists. No Liberal Democrats among the 40,382 entrants? My source explains: ‘Tory and Labour rivals come together to run and talk but the (12) Lib Dems don’t.’